Weekend Edition #31: From Pants to Pantsuits to What Suits You
Or, what to wear when you're trying to break a glass ceiling.
Hi friends,
Off the top, I’d like to say hello to all the new readers! It turns out that a lot of us love Very Good Pants! Thank you for being here, and I hope you enjoy it. As a veteran merchant who has worked for iconic American brands, I write about history, meaning, and what’s fun in fashion. If you’d like, please peruse the archives, where you can read about sweatshirt weather, the history and future of preppy style, whether the baseball hat is the new handbag, and why going green isn’t so black and white. I’m so grateful to everyone who liked, shared, and commented on last week’s post and who reads these posts each Friday. Thank you!
This week, we’re moving from pants to pantsuits. Yup, sometimes progress is incremental. But, between my Halloween hangover and election anxiety, I need a pick-me-up, and there’s almost no better outfit than a great suit. Look at these ladies!
(Prince Harry doesn’t look half bad, either.)
But first, I have to ask: why in the world are women’s suits called pantsuits? Because that word makes my neck itch, right up there with slacks, pantyhose, and panties. (Oddly enough, all relatives of the pant.)
I couldn’t find a good reason, besides as a way to differentiate the look from a skirt suit (which, historically, was the more common suit for women). Oxford’s English Dictionary defines the pantsuit as: “(noun) a pair of pants and a matching jacket worn by women.”
So…a pantsuit is…a suit. Great, glad we cleared that up. We’ll just go with suit from here on out, ok?
Suits are an amazing stylistic choice. They create a bold line, like an exclamation point. They can be shapely or shapeless, sleek or structured. They hug the line of the body, like a Saint Laurent tuxedo (an S-line silhouette from the Seventies). Or they can serve as body armor, creating an H with shoulders that could poke an eye out and even sharper legs.
I almost always pick the woman in the suit as my best-dressed at awards shows (while I sit on my couch in my jammies).
And right now, the suit suits the moment.
In 2016, my office was next to the Javits Center on the west side of Manhattan. On Tuesday, November 8th, I was 35 weeks pregnant with my first child, a boy. The Javits Center was where Hillary Clinton’s campaign was headquartered for Election Day, and where her victory party would be held. The day had darkened early, thanks to the end of Day Light Savings…and the exit polling coming out around the country. I had seen a random tweet online that the campaign had canceled the fireworks display for later that night, the barges waiting in the Hudson River sent home. An ominous sign.
But as I walked to the subway, the Javits Center was still spotlit in bright cobalt blue, and as I headed down the escalator into the depths of the city, moms with their daughters, wearing their I’m With Her tees, headed in the opposite direction, up and towards the party. To celebrate what was meant to be a historic night. The election of our first female president.
We all know how that story ended.
Eight years ago, Libby Chamberlin created a Facebook group called Pantsuit Nation (gift link) to support Hillary Clinton. She said she had formed the group to create a space to celebrate the historic possibility of the first female president. On Election Day, members began sending photos of themselves dressed in their suits on the way to the polls.
One member, Ms. Williams, an assistant professor of sociology, dressed in a suit and a bandana, like Rosie the Riveter. Fatu Forna, a physician and chief of department at a large medical organization wore a gray suit and a pink shirt on Tuesday. She said in an interview: “I sat in my car and took a picture. I’m proud…because a lot of times women in my position are minimized for being powerful; they are put down.”1
During her years as First Lady, then U.S. Senator and Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton was known for wearing colorful suits. In fact, she was the first presidential spouse to wear a suit for her official first lady portrait. Clinton says her switch from skirts to pants happened in 1995 after a presidential trip to Brazil when a photographer took a photo up her skirt, which was later used in an ad. Gross, misogynistic behavior that even the First Lady of the United States couldn’t escape.
When she decided to run for office a few years later, she thought, “I don’t need that. Put on a uniform. Put on a uniform.”2
Unbelievably, women weren’t even allowed to wear pants on the Senate floor until 1993. This was hardly a major issue, since up until then, only two women senators had ever served together. But in the 1992 elections, four women gained seats, bringing the total to six. One of them, Carol Moseley-Braun, the first African-American woman to serve as a United States senator, donned a pantsuit on the first day of work, unaware of the unwritten rule that women weren’t permitted to wear pants. As she described it, "the gasps were audible.”3
Around the same time, Senator Barbara Mikulski had also decided she was more comfortable in pants. When she walked onto the Senate floor, she recalled the reaction from the room: “You would have thought that I was walking on the moon."
According to Moseley-Braun, "What happened next was that other people started wearing pants. All the women staffers went to their bosses and said, 'If this senator can wear pants, then why can't I?' And so it was the pantsuit revolution."
Strength in numbers, even small ones. Representation matters.
Fashion historian Cassidy Zachary says, “Suits have been one of the most gendered garments in history. But they have lost some of that symbolic power because they have been universally adopted across the spectrum. We’re at a point now where women are no longer wearing suits to project male power, but rather the power and autonomy inherent in themselves.”4
Suits have been all over the stage this election season. Kamala, Michelle, Beyonce. They’ve all been rocking suits as they make the case for reproductive rights for women, a secure and hopeful future for our children, and a step forward for our country. Beyonce in sweeping curves. Kelly Rowland in oversized blazers. Both take up space with their looks and their voices, demanding we pay attention.
Stylist Leslie Fremar has been dressing Vice President Kamala Harris in Chloe suits, tailored so perfectly you don’t even notice you’re noticing them. She looks powerful and comfortable, like herself and the potential future leader of the free world.
And Michelle.
Michelle Obama. We’ve watched as she’s gone from the First Lady in a J. Crew skirt suit, groundbreaking in so many ways, to an incredibly fashion-forward woman who has become an icon. I love her style and self-expression, especially over the last few years. In a recent interview, she said she “hadn’t felt the American people were ready for natural Black hair or braids in a first lady.”5 But now, as a former First Lady, one of the best orators of this century, an inspiration, and a leader to the country, she is dressing for herself. And her clothing choices reflect her bold, passionate, and determined vision for our future.
Our leaders should represent us, but they should also be themselves. Personality, charisma, and authenticity are powerful leadership traits that have skyrocketed men to the top of the ladder. Meanwhile, women have had to downplay those traits to get ahead, just as they’ve had to downplay their personal style. But I hope that’s changing. From the looks of it, it just might be.
My son is now eight years old. I’ve added two more boys to the mix. I want to raise them to be kind to others and true to themselves. I want them to know that men can work in the home, raising children, and women can work at the highest levels of leadership outside the home, helping to raise up the world. Anyone can do anything. I want them to know that everything is possible.
Those little girls on their way to a giant glass building along the Hudson River were supposed to see the glass ceiling shattered eight years ago. They are now eight years older. Pantsuit Nation is eight years older. We are all eight years older. And we’ve all lost rights that we had eight years ago. We can’t wait anymore.
It’s time.
Regardless of what happens, I will continue to take up the space I deserve. Wearing what suits me. I hope you do, too.
LOOK BOOK
EXTRA THOUGHTS
I want to share the best writing I’ve read on Substack this past week. Check them out if you have the time!
- - Finding Beauty in a Thrift Store (if you only have time to read one thing, make it this one)
- - For my sons (or this one)
- - Issue #38: one week until election day. (or this one)
- - Sunday Scoop (Sarah’s scope each week is breathtaking, like taking all the fashion news and pouring it straight into our brains)
- - cheesy chicken + kimchi rice (perhaps the perfect comfort food for election night?)
- - 8 Good Things! #005 (Tariro is such a smart and funny writer)
- - Funny Face. (on getting older, feeling young, and everything in between)
- - Middle School Forever (even delightful acclaimed novelists struggle with that new-kid-in-school feeling)
WHAT I BOUGHT
Silk Longies! Despite the strange unseasonably warm weather in NYC, I’m preparing for the cold winter by adopting the Scandi attitude that there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes. (The Scandinavians really have the right attitude about a lot of things.) My mom used to stock up on Land’s End silk long underwear for my sister and me when we were kids, and I have such clear memories of wriggling into the soft sets for ski school, and even regular school on extra frosty mornings. Silk’s hollow fibers make it a natural insulator. It holds in body heat, plus wicks away moisture. To my delight, they still carry them, and right now they’re 50% off.
Thanks, as always, for reading. I’ll be back next week, and I hope the world will be sparkling like shattered glass. Please vote.
x Lindsay
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/09/us/politics/facebook-pantsuit-nation-clinton.html
https://www.businessinsider.com/hillary-clinton-pantsuits-gutsy-started-wearing-skirt-photo-2022-9
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/93384/why-women-couldnt-wear-pants-senate-floor-until-1993
https://www.fastcompany.com/90393935/the-outrageous-deeply-sexist-history-of-the-pantsuit
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/21/style/michelle-obama-dnc-fashion.html?unlocked_article_code=1.WE4.e4On.fExLSv9c3A-T&smid=url-share
I love Michelle’s style too ☺️
Sending good vibes from Canada. I’ve been feeling the allure of suits again lately. I’ve been a fan for decades.💕 Great article, thank you.